


Good friends, a hug, and a special coffee cup

by TheKeyOfHappiness



Series: The one where Willie is a skater boy and Alex does ballet [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex does Ballet, Alex needs a hug, Gen, M/M, Pining, and gets it, luke and reggie are good friends, skater/dancer AU, willie is a skater boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28052544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKeyOfHappiness/pseuds/TheKeyOfHappiness
Summary: Alex needs friends to vent to about Willie. Luckily, his favorite barista and a psychology student that mistakes a coffee shop for his lecture hall are there for him.or: the sequel to the skater boy/dancer au I can't get out of my head
Relationships: Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: The one where Willie is a skater boy and Alex does ballet [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053239
Comments: 8
Kudos: 133





	Good friends, a hug, and a special coffee cup

Alex takes a deep breath before walking into the coffee shop. It’s a little earlier than usual for him, but the weather was uncharacteristically rainy for LA this morning and he didn’t want to risk being stuck in traffic forever. The last time he arrived late for rehearsal, Miss Lessa had him run around the block eight times, and he doesn’t care to repeat the experience anytime soon.

He pushes open the door, and when the ring of the bell is lost under the crashing cymbals of a classic rock song, Alex immediately knows whose shift it is.

The shop is almost empty, and Alex releases a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. No sign of Willie - Alex is both disappointed and relieved.

“Hey, Luke,” he greets, walking up to the counter. “Still fighting against corporate policies, I see.”

Behind the cash register, messy bangs and t-shirt sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, Luke flashes him a blinding smile. Alex isn’t ashamed to admit that he’s never seen anyone smile like Luke before: it’s vibrant with life, and it makes him feel like Luke has been waiting all day to see him, and he can’t believe he’s finally there. He used to have the biggest crush on Luke when the boy started working there, before he realized that was just Luke’s way of greeting people. While socializing makes Alex nervous and tired, the more Luke is surrounded by people, the more he seems to thrive.

“Ah, you know me,” Luke winks, and the consequent tremble in Alex’s knees tells him that _maybe_ he hasn’t completely demolished that crush yet. (He has _eyes_ , okay?) “I can’t stand that hipster shit they put on the speakers. If _I’m_ working here, I at least get to decide the music.”

True to his word, Alex can spot a battered old iPhone plugged into the stereo system, with a bright orange cover that can only be Luke’s.

The doorbell rings, barely audible over the music.

Alex flinches, whipping around. The weight of his gym bag almost sends him smashing against the counter, but it’s not Willie: the door swings closed behind a blonde girl who just left, and Alex steadies himself with a hand on the counter.

_It wasn’t Willie. You probably drove him away for good, you lunatic._

“Hey, Alex,” Luke taps on his shoulder with the cloth he’s using to wipe the counter, “Are you okay?”

“Uhm, yeah,” Alex straightens himself up and looks intensely at the drink menu, willing his heartbeat to slow down. “I’m just… a little clumsy, you know…”

Luke’s eyebrows arch upwards.

“Typical ballet dancer.” He comments. Alex feels his cheeks flare up, but before he can come up with a retort, another voice coming from the window booths makes him wish he could dig a hole in the ground and disappear forever.

“He was looking for skater boy,” a boy with slick black hair says, twirling a pink highlighter between his fingers. “His name’s Willie, right?”

Alex recognizes him: he’s a psychology student who wears a lot of flannels and spends much more time in this coffee shop than at his lectures - or at least that’s what Alex imagines, given that whenever he pops by, this guy’s always in the booth by the window. He’s never talked to him before, and if this is what he’s going to say, Alex would much rather he stays silent.

“Actually,” Alex crosses his arms, “His name is _none of your business_.”

Luke’s eyes dart between the two of them like he’s following an exciting table tennis match.

“I saw you the other day,” the boy continues unbothered, gesturing towards the window that offers a perfect visual of the spot where Willie and Alex sat less than a week before. “Seemed to me like you guys were having a good time, before you ran away.”

_Oh, for heaven’s sake…_

Alex rubs his temples with both hands to avoid having to see Luke’s indignant expression.

“You _what?_ ” He shrieks.

“Guys, seriously!” Alex dumps his gym bag on the floor, placing his hands on his hips and glaring at the other two. “This is none of your business! I don’t even know your name!”

Window-booth boy waves.

“I’m Reggie. You’re Alex, I know that.”

“It’s kinda creepy that you spied on me, you know? Don’t you have to study?”

Reggie has three books and a countless number of notebook pages marked in different colors splayed on the table in front of him, but they don’t seem to bother him.

“I am studying,” he replies easily, “I’m doing a field study on human behavior. You, my friend, look like you could use a good talk.”

Alex doesn’t really know how to reply to that because Reggie’s not wrong. He’s had trouble sleeping for days, what with the thought of the upcoming show and the exhausting rehearsals, and the thought of what his fellow dancers would say if they knew about his almost date with Willie, and the crestfallen look on Willie’s face when he’d refused to go on a date with him…

Alex is bottling it all up, and Reggie’s right: he could really use a friend to vent to right now. But it’s not like he can ask Carrie or one of the girls in his class, right? The mere thought gives him shivers.

“Let’s get back to your date with Willie for a second,” Luke leans on his elbows, his eyes piercing right through him. “What happened? Why did you run away?”

“It wasn’t a _date_ , you guys!” Alex pleads, his voice cracking horribly at the end of the sentence, “We just grabbed a coffee and we… he…”

Alex closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, stifling a sniffle.

_Poised. Graceful. In control._

“Hey, it’s alright.”

Alex doesn’t have time to register what’s happening before he finds himself enveloped in a tight hug. He presses his nose against Reggie’s flannel, blinking a couple tears away.

“There, there,” he pats Alex on the back and nods approvingly when Luke silently hands him the napkin to wipe his eyes. “Nothing to worry about.”

“I’ve never seen you leave that window booth,” Alex says, a smile trembling on his lips.

“Yeah, well,” Reggie shrugs, “Duty called. You were in desperate need of a hug from a friend.”

Alex bends his head, considering the boys in front of him. What has his life come to, if he considers his favorite barista and a guy he often sees at the coffee shop as his _friends_?

“Alright then,” he sighs, sitting on one of the high stools near the counter. Luke’s eyes are bright and attentive and Alex chuckles when he places a hand under his chin and nods encouragingly, ready to listen. Reggie mirrors him.

“So, we barely know each other. He ran me over with his skateboard the first time we met, actually.”

“That’s so romantic.”

“Anyway,” Alex ignores Reggie’s passionate remark, “His skate group is always in front of my ballet school and I don’t know, it’s like every time we meet, Willie has found a new way to tease me! He’s disrespectful, and irritating, and… and…”

“And you want him to scoop you up in his arms and ride his skateboard with him into the sunset.” Luke finishes for him with a knowing smirk.

“NO!” Alex blushes, “…maybe?”

Luke whoops, throwing both his arms to the sky in victory.

“A miracle!” He cries to the ceiling, “He admits it!”

_You’re a dancer, Alex. The embodiment of grace and elegance. You can’t tackle Luke on the counter and suffocate him with his apron, even if you really want to and he deserves it._

“Well then it’s settled!” Reggie states, “Next time you see him, don’t run away.”

Alex nibs at a bit of broken skin near his fingernail. It’s not that easy. There’s still the problem of what his friends would say if he showed up with Willie. And Alex already knows what Reggie and Luke would reply to that - that if they’re really his friends, they will support him. But that’s the thing. Alex isn’t naive enough to kid himself into thinking that Carrie and the others are his _friends._ He knows they aren’t, but they’re still the people he shares the dream of a career with, and he has to see them every day. The classes are challenging and competitive enough without the added stress of having to hide a relationship with a guy all of them laugh about on a daily basis.

And anyway… what relationship? He’d blown his chance with Willie when he left him with his empty cup of coffee on the sidewalk.

“I don’t think he’s going to want to see me again,” Alex says, “Not after the way I left him.”

“Mhh, never say never,” Luke has a complicit glint in his eyes while he moves towards the coffee machine. “The usual, Alex?”

Alex nods, distracted by a sign by the register he’s only noticing now.

“Looking for staff?” He asks.

“Yeah,” Luke replies, while the coffee machine hums and purrs under his expert hands, “Bobby left, we need someone new.”

Alex nods, lost in thought. He barely remembers Bobby: his shifts rarely coincided with Alex’s breaks, and thank God for that, because his coffees were terrible.

Reggie has taken advantage of Luke’s distraction to sneak behind the counter and take control of his playlist. The rock medley turns into a banjo-heavy country song and Luke whips around so fast Alex wonders how his neck doesn’t snap in two.

“The fuck is that?” He bellows, but Reggie’s already back in his booth, “Put Nirvana back on!”

He can’t really move from his spot, because he’s holding Alex’s cup under the machine.

“ _Country roads take me home, to the place I belooooong,_ ” Reggie sings passionately, and Alex and Luke exchange a look because surprisingly enough, that boy has a _voice_.

Luke places his coffee in front of him and shuffles back to the plug-in system, but he lingers there.

“Hey Luke,” Alex picks up his coffee cup, “You’ve given me two…”

His hands tremble, and he almost spills the drink on the counter. Luke gave him two cups: he extracts the full one and sets it aside, focusing on the extra. It’s covered in handwritten words, a messy handwriting that runs around the paper cup and bends and twists around the black logo of the coffee shop.

“What is this?” Alex whispers, disbelieving.

“Read it,” Luke encourages softly, finger still hovering above the pause button on his phone.

“You’ve had it all this time and you’re only giving this to me now?”

_That’s betrayal, that is._

“I wanted to hear your story first,” Luke smirks, “See if you deserved it.”

Alex can’t form a coherent thought: the paper cup is light in his hands, but he can barely hold it up to read.

_Hey Twinkle-toes_ _. I just wanted to say I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable, the other day. I think you’re funny, and smart, and I guess I’m a bit of an idiot sometimes, but I like talking to you a lot. I don’t have your number and I don’t use social media, so this is the only way I could ask you… I would like another chance. It’s not a date, I promise. But I want to show you something cool, somewhere that isn’t in front of your dance school. Come to the Sunset Skate Park after you finish class, if you want. I hope you do. Willie._

Alex feels a lump swell in his throat, and it takes all his self-control to hold back the tears that start prickling at the side of his eyes again. He breaths in deeply - Reggie is staring intently at a girl with a puppy on the other side of the road, but Luke’s eyes haven’t left him.

_West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home, country roads…_

“Have you read it?” Alex asks softly.

“…maybe?” It’s Luke’s turn to blush.

“When did he write this?”

“Three days ago,” Luke scratches the back of his head, and Alex runs his fingertips along the rim of the paper cup.

“He didn’t give me a date to go to the skate park,” Alex whispers, “He just said to go after class.”

“I guess…” Luke addresses him with a small smile, finally switching back to his own music. He chooses a soft rock tune this time. “I guess he’s going there every day, waiting for you to show up.”

Alex gulps down, finally reaching to take a sip of his drink.

He has a decision to make.

**Author's Note:**

> I just couldn't not turn this into a short series of equally short one-shots. 🛹🩰  
> Beta-read by wonderful [itsjuliemolina](https://itsjuliemolina.tumblr.com) once again!  
> Thank you for reading! Let me know your thoughts in the comments ❤️


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